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00:00Sorry, all right, non-sequitur city here.
00:02It's not too hot to talk Sabres, is it?
00:05Ain't going to be ever too hot to talk Sabres, in my opinion, this offseason.
00:09Alex Tuck is gone, right?
00:15Probably, yes, probably.
00:19But I still think that everything you've been hearing about the separation,
00:28it's been pretty consistent, but I said this last week,
00:33and I'll say it again as we're another week closer,
00:38that it's in the player's best interest and their agent's best interest
00:41to get the word out.
00:43I think if you want to stay, you want to try to drive the price up any way you can,
00:49and maybe there's some pressure that comes if everyone's talking about it
00:54all the time or whatever, I don't know.
00:56So I still think the deadline could come, and he could, at the last minute,
01:01just take the best offer the Sabres have, because he never really wanted to leave.
01:05It wasn't in his heart.
01:06His wife really likes it here.
01:07Whatever.
01:08I don't know.
01:08I don't want to close the door entirely on that.
01:11He will be offered, if he goes to the market, more money somewhere else.
01:17There's almost no question about that.
01:18So if that's what it ends up being all about, and I'm not being judgmental by saying that,
01:26if that's the path he goes, then, yeah, I think he's probably gone.
01:30But I think there's still, to me, hope that he just is trying to get the best deal he can
01:38for himself
01:39while never really wanting to leave.
01:41And if that's the case, then we could get, kind of like, remember Stamkos?
01:45How many years ago was that?
01:46We were hot and heavy about Stamkos.
01:48He's going to get to the market.
01:49He's going to get to the market.
01:50He's near, you know, the family's nearby.
01:52Like, that might be compelling.
01:54It's not Toronto, but, you know, maybe Buffalo.
01:56And then on June 30th, he, nope, not going anywhere, staying seven years, whatever it was, stayed in Tampa.
02:06That's similar.
02:07I mean, talk is not Stephen Stamkos, a legendary cup-winning captain.
02:11But he was a kingpin guy on that team, and it seemed like he was going to go to market.
02:16He was the number one target in free agency, and at the last minute, he stayed.
02:21So, I think that could still happen, but the most likely scenario is he's going to get a huge seven
02:28-year contract somewhere else
02:29for maybe $12 million a year and be gone.
02:32Well, I'll say the line.
02:34I'm gullible.
02:35So, I am basing my expectations here on these.
02:42It's often the case that the insiders all report the same thing, which, you know, isn't a bad thing
02:47because that might be a sign that it's accurate.
02:49Like, they're all getting the same information and saying the same thing.
02:53But it's more than just, to my eyes and ears, it's more than just the objective aspect that apparently
03:04the Sabres don't want to get to Tuck's request, as has been seemingly the case for months,
03:10I mean, going back well into the season.
03:12There's more language to these reports than just that, and that's also how I found, and
03:22we talked about it, Kekalainen to be, when he talked about Tuck a couple of different times
03:26at a press conference and then in a radio interview.
03:29He's saying a little bit more, I think.
03:33And then, I think that comes through in Elliott and Pierre Lebrun and the like.
03:38I think he's saying a little bit more than, you know, look, we'd love to get this done,
03:44but sometimes you can't.
03:46And I think maybe he doesn't want to do it.
03:50And, you know, there's a number that he would do it at, but it seems that it's not close
03:56to what Tuck thinks he can get.
03:58So, what is that even to say about the Sabres' interest in keeping Tuck?
04:03It's really not, it's like a token effort.
04:06And I don't think I want to blame them, but that's what it sounds like to me, is like,
04:12you know, we're not slamming the door on him, but we know how far apart our idea is from
04:20his, and then, you know, sort of what's the point when it's like that?
04:26You think I'm right?
04:27Well, I would tell you not to be so hot on yourself for being, I mean, it's a bit of
04:32your
04:32brand, you're gullible.
04:34I think in this instance, I'm the one who's being gullible, because I'm the one over here
04:38talking about the hokey hometown, you know, all that.
04:41Like, that's more gullible than the cold-blooded reality of big-time pro sports, where we're
04:46talking about, you know, a difference of $10 million over the lifetime of a contract,
04:52maybe.
04:52Like, it's a lot of dough.
04:53So, you know, it's easy to sit on the sideline and say, how much money do you need?
04:58So, I think my, you know, explanation there of, you know, what could still happen is more
05:05gullible than what you're suggesting, which is mostly reading the room, which, you know,
05:12there's every reason to think the guy's going to walk, I think, right now.
05:16The other little nugget I'll throw in again, because I just thought of it while you were
05:20talking there, because, you know, the Sabres have seemingly been at whatever number they're
05:24at, and the gap has not ever really been bridged at all, effectively.
05:29You're right, the reporting has been consistent going back into, like, February, I think,
05:35on this.
05:37Is that Kekalainen, sure, he sounds like he sounds, and I agree, he sounds like someone
05:42who is trying to prepare the fan base to lose a player that they, like, really like and want
05:48on the team.
05:48A very good player and an important player.
05:50So, that's, I think, the right read, too.
05:54He also, though, could know by July 1st whether he's going to be able to pull another big move
06:04to replace him.
06:06And if that doesn't come to fruition, if for some reason, whatever number of deals he might
06:12have irons in the fire on, he gets beat at the table and has to fold.
06:18He could, that could change the Sabres' position.
06:21I'm not here to tell you that that's a great process, and, I don't know, Tuck maybe could
06:25end up offended, maybe the way Drury eventually was, when, you know, it took you how long?
06:31Now you're coming with the deal I would have took, you know, that kind of thing.
06:34But they could pivot to, you know, well, we couldn't get Robert Thomas, and we couldn't
06:39trade for Matthew Nyes, and we couldn't, whatever, whatever grab bag you want to talk about
06:44of ideas that are out there, and those ideas are all out there and being written about.
06:49He can't pull something off that he feels suitably replaces him, then, well, I was willing to
06:54go to 9.5, but how does 10.5 strike you?
06:58You know, because I don't want to take a step back, and if I've missed my window to get a
07:05suitable replacement or replacements for Alex Tuck, then maybe I've got to just kind of suck
07:10it up and live with the contract that I didn't want to do a month ago.
07:14I suppose.
07:16Not to push back on that, I think you would agree with this.
07:20I see Kekalainen as somebody that has a lot of confidence in himself, and what can he or
07:28can he not do in a trade market?
07:30You're talking about a scenario where he has his answer by the end of June, and then maybe
07:36he makes a move on Tuck, but before that, I think he's somebody that can get people to
07:43say yes.
07:43He seems like he might have that trait, and man, that's a good trait.
07:50We've had GMs that did not have that.
07:53I hope that's right.
07:54I mean, his first kick at it in the winter was Colton Pareko, and that didn't work.
07:59Well, they said yes to the deal.
08:01Oh, sure, the Blues said yes, but get the player to say yes is the tricky part.
08:06And if you make that deal, and however it got out, without even yet having the consent
08:12of the player, all the more reason to think that, ah, we'll get this done.
08:17I mean, I'm not worried.
08:18I think he's got a lot of confidence in himself.
08:22And what I want, I've been saying about the Tuck situation is, apart from how much confidence
08:27he has, you know, if he's doing his job, which I would assume he is, he's got contacts everywhere.
08:33Some probably have been contacts of his for many years, and has been working on ideas.
08:39You know, this is still the Blues, perhaps, or maybe it's every team.
08:43Here are the possibilities.
08:45He would know all that by now.
08:47Maybe somewhere there's a board over there that has every team and, like, every player
08:53that, or just be on a file or something, where you'd have a base knowledge of their availability
09:00and you'd already know your own interest in the player.
09:02What I want to have happen, nothing against the idea of keeping Tuck, is for this GM, a real
09:10GM, to have that figured out and be able to get, find his way to a player.
09:18He's got assets.
09:19Find his way to a player who is younger, that he thinks is the right fit, and can produce
09:27almost to the same extent, if not to the same extent.
09:29Maybe he won't be 6'4".
09:32And he wants that, too.
09:33That's how he acted at the deadline, going out and getting size like he did.
09:37But it just, every passing day makes it seem that they're just not close on him.
09:43It does remind me of, like, Drury.
09:46Yeah.
09:47A lot of these other ones, over the last decade, haven't meant anything.
09:50Just, alright.
09:51And even last year, I'd have to admit, signing Zucker and maybe someone else, there was someone
09:58else.
09:58Greenway?
09:59Yep.
10:00Like, why bother when you're here?
10:03But the Sabres were rewarded for that.
10:05That's Adams.
10:05The Sabres were rewarded for keeping what they had together.
10:11And, you know, if not Greenway, Zucker paid them off with a very good season.
10:16Let me just color, we've got to get to a break here, just all the way into the lines here.
10:21I mentioned Knives.
10:22I don't want to get people, I don't want to irresponsibly get people excited.
10:26Like, there was, there's been a lot of reporting about a trade that almost got to the finish
10:31line at the deadline involving Knives with Montreal, Toronto and Montreal.
10:36And the paperwork was late and it didn't happen.
10:40And I just want to at least mention, it's possible he still gets traded.
10:43It's also possible that the GM at the time, Charlie Living, was like flailing around in
10:48a life preserver fighting for his life and might have done something really reckless.
10:53Like trade an excellent big 23-year-old two-way forward who's certainly got, he's got tux production
10:59in his future if he's not already there.
11:01Nice, like I love this player.
11:04He's under contract till 2031, seven and a half, or 775 is the number, 23 years old.
11:12I mean, that's the guy you described when you're saying go find a guy that, you know, replaces
11:19him that's younger and cheaper and like there it is.
11:22And that would be an excellent move.
11:26I just don't know that the new leadership in Toronto is going to be eager to trade him.
11:30I think the guy that was running the show before was on his last legs and might, it's
11:35probably great for Toronto that they didn't get that trade done.
11:39And that would cost you somebody significant.
11:41It's going to cost you a lot.
11:42Yeah, it should.
11:43He's, he'd be, but he, that's, if he's on the market, like that is the tough, it's the
11:49division, whatever they were going to turn into Montreal.
11:53That's plug and play.
11:55Excellent replacement.
11:56Ooh, that would be fun as a GM to try to capitalize on a, another GM you think is a
12:01lame duck.
12:03I mean, it's serious business over here.
12:05Oh, you're quitting the league.
12:08Well, maybe I can get a good deal off of you.
12:11What will it take?
12:13What can I throw in?
12:14How can I sweeten this offer?
12:17We'll see.
12:18Sal Capaccio coming up in just more than 15 minutes.
12:21Talking Bills, Mike Schopen, the Bulldog, WG.
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